Slow Cooker Blackberry Orange Barbecue Chicken

These Slow Cooker Blackberry Orange Barbecue Chicken Drumsticks are an easy way to satisfy your family’s craving for barbecue in the dead of winter, or any time during the year! (This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Huggies® Wipes. As always, all opinions are my own.)

I {big puffy heart} love my slow cooker. It has saved me on those busy days when I know I won’t have a lot of time to prepare a meal after returning home from work or errands or football practice…or just when I don’t really feel like “cooking.”

I mentioned a while back that we are moving in a few weeks and I have been trying to clean out our freezer. I seem to have stockpiled enough to feed a small army in there so I’ve been slowly working through it. This week’s triumph was this Blackberry Orange Barbecue Chicken. The sauce is semi-homemade, with bottled barbecue sauce, seedless blackberry preserves and orange marmalade, red pepper flakes and a little liquid smoke. A plain, basic barbecue sauce works best rather than a sweet or spicy one, since you’re adding the sweet and a little spicy.

Slow cooking makes the meat so tender it’s literally falling off the bone, but you have to be careful not to leave the meat in the slow cooker for so long that the fall apart. Still would be delicious but a little harder to eat!

Now you can eat this chicken straight out of the slow cooker. I like to add cornstarch the sauce to get that nice thick, rich texture to the sauce and then put the chicken under the broiler to caramelize and give it a nice little char.

My kids love this recipes and my daughter, who used to despise messy food, has come to love these little photo shoots where she gets to get all messy-faced. The eating part is where it gets a little messy which is why we keep Huggies® Wipes on hand to clean up said messy face.

Keeping these pretty packs around has been a lifesaver in times like these. Huggies® Wipes are thick and durable, so they stand up to these big messes. I have super sensitive skin and they are so gentle that I use them to remove my makeup, too.

You can join Huggies® #HugTheMessSweepstakes or visit them at Huggies.com.

Slow Cooker Blackberry Orange Barbecue Chicken

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Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes

Servings: 12 drumsticks

Author: Kristin

Ingredients

• 3 lbs chicken drumsticks about 12
• 1 cup of your favorite BBQ Sauce
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 1/2 cup seedless blackberry preserves
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 tablespoons water
• Green onions chopped, for garnish if desired

Instructions

• Place chicken drumsticks in the slow cooker (remove the skin if you prefer). Season with salt and pepper.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together barbecue sauce, orange marmalade, blackberry preserves, red pepper flakes and liquid smoke. Pour sauce over the drumsticks. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours, or high for 3-4 hours.
• In a small bowl, stir together cornstarch and water until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Skim fat from the juices in the slow cooker and discard, then stir in the cornstarch mixture. Cook until sauce is thickened; about 15 minutes.
• (Optional) To caramelize the sauce and get a slight char on the chicken, turn on the broiler in your oven and place chicken, skin side up, on a foil lined baking sheet. Brush with additional sauce and broil for a 5-7, watching closing to avoid burning.
• Serve hot, with additional sauce on the side. Garnish with green onions if desired.

For more slow cooker recipes, try these:

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Pork

Slow Cooker Asian Inspired Drumsticks

Slow Cooker Mexican Beans

Slow Cooker Kalua Pork

For all Slow Cooker Recipes, go HERE and for all dinner recipes go HERE. For the Recipe Index, go HERE.